OSWEGO – After honoring President Deborah Stanley at the Founder’s Weekend luncheon and unveiling a multi-million dollar endowment for the ice arena and convocation hall, SUNY Oswego broke ground on the $80 million Hewitt Hall renovations.
The long-awaited project has been in the works for several years and is expected to be completed in 2023. The university welcomed alumni in addition to several prominent figures like Assembly Minority Leader Will Barclay, Assemblyman Harry Bronson and SUNY Chancellor Jim Malatras to begin construction of what is set to be one of the nation’s best facilities for broadcasting, communications, graphic design, journalism and cinema and screen studies.
“Hewitt Hall will be the designation for exploring the production and design of communication, media and the arts, providing world class digital technology facilitates for programs in film, media, journalism, design, visual and performing arts, public relations and communications,” Stanley said. “The building will include cutting edge broadcast studios, production and engineering spaces and graphic, video and audio spaces.”
Stanley specifically wanted to thank several teams including the Campus Concept Committee, the Hewitt Hall Committee and the facilities services team. She added that the space will have world class technology and cutting edge spaces that will continue to support the university’s mission.
“The building will meet our mission to be learner-centric by having collaborative spaces absolutely everywhere throughout the building,” Stanley said. “When completed, Hewitt Hall will become a facility where the very best students and the distinguished faculty and staff in the nation will come to find a state-of-the-art, hands-on learning and teaching space. It adds to an $850 million renewal program that has made our campus increasingly competitive in academic programs.”
After Stanley, Malatras spoke on the facility which will be constructed by DiPasquale Construction and Turner Construction. He explained how important a center of learning like this is as a way to help students in their future.
“Now more than ever we need students to enter communications and the media, not only to find ways to express beauty and creativity through new visual arts mediums … but also to speak truth to power,” Malatras said. “We need that more than ever in our society. We need our students to find ways of holding everyone accountable and this facility [will help do just that].”
He added that the work would not be complete without the help of the New York State Assembly that “pumps a lot of money into SUNY,” in order to help create a world class facility that students deserve.
“Our students are second to none and deserve world class facilities to support the education they are getting from faculty,” Malatras said. “And too often public education is often left to the side. We don’t get those state-of-the-art facilities. But it is because of our legislative delegation, because of the executives … that pump hundreds of millions of dollars into SUNY that we are now able to afford [these] types of projects.”
For Bronson, an alumnus of SUNY Oswego, the decision to approve many of these capital projects is easy. He reflected on the opportunities the SUNY system afforded to him and has a strong desire to offer similar chances to current students.
“Every budget cycle that comes up, I think of SUNY Oswego and I think about the opportunity that was presented to me because of what SUNY Oswego does,” Bronson said. “For me, making a decision on capital projects is really easy because it is a gift to another generation. It’s a gift to students. It’s a gift of opportunity and creating those environments where they can learn and grow.”
Beyond the university, the surrounding community will benefit from the build. The Hewitt Hall renovation project will create 439 local construction jobs which results in $38 million in labor costs.
Also at the groundbreaking, Julie Pretzat, the dean of the School of Communications, Media and The Arts, unveiled plans for a new department of cinema and screen studies. In addition to the new department which will improve on the university’s cinema and screen studies major, the project will solidify SUNY Oswego as a mainstay in educating modern journalists.
“The spirit of collaboration, creativity, vision and excellence that is the essence of what we do at SCMA will be captured in this $80 million renovation, creating the most technologically advanced, state-of-the-art home for media in the SUNY system, the state of NY and the country,” Pretzat said.
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